Median home size has almost doubled, rising from about 1,150 square feet in 1956 to roughly 2,210 square feet today. Over the same period, average household size has shrunk from 3.3 people to 2.51. The result is a dramatic increase in living space per person—from just 348 square feet in 1956 to about 880 square feet today. That’s 532 more square feet per person, or a 153 percent increase. Had space per person stayed at its 1956 level, the typical home today would measure only about 874 square feet.
The median home cost about $14,500 in 1956—roughly $12.61 per square foot. With average wages at $1.85 an hour, each square foot required 6.82 hours of earning. Today, the median home price is about $420,300, or $190.18 per square foot. However, average wages have risen to $36.53 an hour (before benefits), bringing the time price down to 5.21 hours per square foot. So, while the dollar price per square foot has risen 15-fold, wages have increased nearly 20-fold. The result is the time price of housing has fallen by almost 24 percent.
Compared to 1956, we now enjoy 532 more square feet per person as well as homes packed with 3.7 times more amenities—and all of it for about 24 percent less time per square foot.
George Will decries the ham-fisted intrusions of the U.S. government’s executive branch into higher education. Here’s his conclusion:
Finally, it is almost sublimely hilarious that Trump’s compact forbids universities to “belittle” — wait for it — “conservative ideas.” Such as? Civility? Free trade? Fiscal continence? The separation of powers? The rule of law? Keeping the public and private sectors distinct by not conscripting corporations (Intel, U.S. Steel and others) into the public sector? Government too modest to decree that universities must be “safe spaces” for conservatives (who used to be proud of not being snowflakes)?
The Trump administration is today’s comprehensive belittler of conservative ideas. Its solicitude for “conservative ideas” will not encompass this one: Many things are beyond government’s proper scope and actual competence. Watching today’s politics toy with an institution of MIT’s complexity and importance is like watching a toddler play with Sèvres porcelain.
It’s not that Indiana Republicans have deserted their president. Ninety percent of them voiced their approval of him in the same survey. It is simply that this proposal runs so counter to most people’s sense of principle, and priority. Attempts by outside political action committees to generate pro-redistricting rallies at the Statehouse flopped pathetically.
Arnaud Bertrand shares the details of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s new, absurd requirements for foreign tourists to the U.S.: (HT Scott Lincicome)
Insanely, submitting your past 5 years’ social media to enter the U.S. as a tourist is only a small part of the proposed upcoming requirements.
You’ll also need to give your DNA (!) among many other new requirements.
All the additional info you’ll need to give as a tourist eligible for ESTA (meaning those tourists who don’t need a visa, for instance from EU, UK, Australia, Japan, and other Visa Waiver countries):
– All social media accounts from the last 5 years
– All your biometrics: face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
– All your phone numbers from the last 5 years
– All your email addresses from the last 10 years
– IP addresses and metadata from your submitted photos
– Names of your family members (parents, spouse, siblings, children)
– All your family members’ phone numbers from the last 5 years
– Your family members’ dates of birth
– Your family members’ places of birth
– Your family members’ residencies
– All your business phone numbers from the last 5 years
– All your business email addresses from the last 10 yearsIf you do need a visa (i.e. non ESTA), I imagine the requirements are going to be far more drastic.
This is straight from the Department of Homeland Security documentation which you can find here.
